Overall MRT reliability up in January; train punctuality dips across network
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Commuters at Bishan Circle Line MRT station on Dec 7, 2025.
ST PHOTO: KELVIN CHNG
- Overall MRT network reliability improved in January, reaching 1.673 million train-km (MKBF) and exceeding Singapore's target, LTA reported.
- The Circle Line's reliability and overall MRT punctuality declined due to a Jan 13 incident and ongoing tunnel works.
- LRT network reliability decreased in January, though the Downtown Line remained the most reliable MRT line.
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SINGAPORE – The overall reliability of the MRT network improved in January compared with December. The exception was the Circle Line (CCL), where the average distance travelled by trains between delays of more than five minutes fell following an incident.
On Jan 13, passengers on the CCL faced a delay
Overall train punctuality across the network declined across the five MRT lines, according to figures released on Feb 13 by the Land Transport Authority (LTA). The drop was due in part to the Jan 13 CCL incident.
On average, MRT trains clocked 1.673 million train-km between delays that lasted more than five minutes between February 2025 and January 2026. This is slightly up from an average of 1.606 million train-km between January 2025 and December 2025.
This remains above Singapore’s rail reliability target – measured by mean kilometres between failure (MKBF) – of one million train-km for the entire MRT network.
The MKBF, which reflects how far a train travels before encountering a delay of more than five minutes, is a widely used engineering measure of rail reliability. It does not reflect the severity of rail disruptions.
LTA’s figures are based on a 12-month moving average of the MKBF.
By this measure, the SBS Transit-operated Downtown Line (DTL) remained the most reliable of the five lines, clocking 2.794 million train-km in January, up from the moving average of 2.787 million train-km in the previous month.
The second-highest-ranked line was SBS Transit’s North East Line (NEL), which clocked 2.209 million train-km in January, up from 2.198 million train-km in December.
It overtook the SMRT-operated CCL, which averaged 1.834 million train-km between delays, down from the previous month’s average of 2.464 million train-km.
Behind the CCL was the East-West Line (EWL), also operated by SMRT, with 1.446 million train-km in January, up from 1.265 million train-km in December.
Coming in last was SMRT’s North-South Line (NSL), which still recorded an improvement from an average of 1.099 million train-km in December to 1.237 million train-km in January.
The performance of the SMRT-run Thomson-East Coast Line (TEL) was excluded from the overall rail reliability results. This is because MRT lines at this stage tend to see significantly lower mileage due to factors such as relatively low ridership and trains not running at typical frequencies.
The fifth and final stage of the line, comprising Bedok South and Sungei Bedok stations, will open in the second half of 2026. LTA said that after the line is fully open and operations have stabilised, TEL’s performance can then be fairly compared with that of the mature MRT lines.
In January, TEL trains travelled an average of 373,000 train-km between delays, an improvement from 325,000 train-km the month before.
On the LRT network, overall reliability fell in January.
Across the LRT system, trains travelled an average of 408,000 car-km between delays in January, down from 429,000 car-km in December.
The Sengkang-Punggol LRT, operated by SBS Transit, recorded 860,000 car-km between delays, a drop from 1.025 million car-km the month before.
The Bukit Panjang LRT, managed by SMRT, improved marginally, posting 200,000 car-km between delays, up from 199,000 car-km in December.
LTA also released data on how the rail lines performed in January.
Train punctuality for the MRT network – the percentage of trips completed within two minutes of the scheduled time – slipped slightly from 99.55 per cent in December to 99.24 per cent in January. The dip was largely due to weaker performance of the NEL and CCL, which saw the biggest declines.
Punctuality on the NEL fell from 99.25 per cent in December to 98.61 in January.
Punctuality on the TEL, which was excluded from overall network-wide punctuality data, was 99.91 per cent in January, up from 99.72 per cent the month before.
On the CCL, it dropped from 99.5 per cent to 98.81 per cent over the same period. Besides the delay on Jan 13, the CCL’s performance was affected by tunnel works between Mountbatten and Paya Lebar stations.
The proportion of train services that operated according to schedule edged up across the network, from 99.84 per cent in December to 99.87 per cent in January. Three of the five MRT lines – the EWL, NEL and CCL – recorded improvements on this measure, while the NSL and DTL saw slight declines.
On the EWL and NEL, 99.9 per cent of services ran as scheduled in January. This figure was 99.7 per cent on the CCL.
The proportion of services on the NSL that operated on schedule fell to 99.87 per cent in January – a dip from 99.99 per cent in December. On the DTL, 99.96 per cent of services ran as scheduled in January, slightly down from 99.97 per cent in December.
